Rushed to production: a xbox vs playstation conspiracy theory.

Lets start with a disclaimer.

This is not a one is better thread and this is all just theory.

the point of this is to spawn a fun conversation.

If you are a older gamer you remember the launch of the xbox 360. It launched almost at a random time and was the first next gen console out. At the time the ps2 was in it's prime and the original xbox "halo box" was doing decent. It's widely thought that microsoft rushed the launch of the console so they could get the lead in sales, it seems to of been a solid plan as the ps3 took awhile to catch up from the year and a half head start. The problem the xbox faced right from launch till nearly the end of it's life was faulty hardware. launch consoles were burning up and melting and most had to be recalled. Soon after that we started seeing the red ring of death that plagued most of the consoles. Several revisions to the console were made to aid the overheating problems, stronger fans, larger cooling, motherboard changes, and finally a total redesign (360 slim) that seamed to finally fix the issue.

With all of that said, does it seem like sony released the ps4 early to prompt ms to do the same in hopes they would have yet another generation of hardware woes? The already failing xbox1's seem to possibly be a tell tale sign.

If you are a older gamer you remember the launch of the xbox 360. It launched almost at a random time and was the first next gen console out. At the time the ps2 was in it's prime and the original xbox "halo box" was doing decent. It's widely thought that microsoft rushed the launch of the console so they could get the lead in sales, it seems to of been a solid plan as the ps3 took awhile to catch up from the year and a half head start. The problem the xbox faced right from launch till nearly the end of it's life was faulty hardware. launch consoles were burning up and melting and most had to be recalled. Soon after that we started seeing the red ring of death that plagued most of the consoles. Several revisions to the console were made to aid the overheating problems, stronger fans, larger cooling, motherboard changes, and finally a total redesign (360 slim) that seamed to finally fix the issue.

With all of that said, does it seem like sony released the ps4 early to prompt ms to do the same in hopes they would have yet another generation of hardware woes? The already failing xbox1's seem to possibly be a tell tale sign.

thoughts?

"Old gamer"... that's when you remember the the Atari 2600.

Yes, they launched earlier than probably should have. The original Xbox was NOT doing decent, from a business perspective.

Sony didn't release early. Sony released when they wanted to. Microsoft released early with the One.

If you are a older gamer you remember the launch of the xbox 360. It launched almost at a random time and was the first next gen console out. At the time the ps2 was in it's prime and the original xbox "halo box" was doing decent. It's widely thought that microsoft rushed the launch of the console so they could get the lead in sales, it seems to of been a solid plan as the ps3 took awhile to catch up from the year and a half head start. The problem the xbox faced right from launch till nearly the end of it's life was faulty hardware. launch consoles were burning up and melting and most had to be recalled. Soon after that we started seeing the red ring of death that plagued most of the consoles. Several revisions to the console were made to aid the overheating problems, stronger fans, larger cooling, motherboard changes, and finally a total redesign (360 slim) that seamed to finally fix the issue.

With all of that said, does it seem like sony released the ps4 early to prompt ms to do the same in hopes they would have yet another generation of hardware woes? The already failing xbox1's seem to possibly be a tell tale sign.

thoughts?

I do think Sony's February event caught Microsoft off guard and they've been playing catchup ever since. I remember reading reports that MS really intended to have the X1 launch in 2014 rather than 2013. With that said, I think Sony's plan was simply to get the jump on MS.

Im sure if Sony held off on the PS4 reveal back in February, MS would have held off a little longer as well. Sony kind of forced their hand a little bit. Ideally, the PS4 and the XB1 would be much better off launching in say, March, allowing for a much broader set of launch titles, and a lot more time to refine their products. Ah well, Hindsight's a $#@!.

SONY had this launch planned all along, Microsofts issues stem from poor internal management, putting profits before gamers.
More importantly, Xbox has had 3 generations of black crush graphics and huge ass boxes, they need to hire someone decent if they plan to stay in this industry.

SONY had this launch planned all along, Microsofts issues stem from poor internal management, putting profits before gamers.
More importantly, Xbox has had 3 generations of black crush graphics and huge ass boxes, they need to hire someone decent if they plan to stay in this industry.

Something to do with colour compressions and losing detail in dark areas.
Night races back in the day on Project Gotham Racing on the OG Xbox were pretty much 1 shade of black, pitch black.

Only the Xenon had the gamma curve issue, the original and this Xbox do not have that.
I suspect maybe you TV was just setup wrong, I played the hell out of PGR 1 and 2 and never saw the issue you're talking about.
Hell I still have the original xbox hooked up to a HDTV and there is not issues with colour.

Atari released pong and super pong in 1976, the year before the 2600. Does that count?

i guess it does lol. i heard it sucked too right? but like people sometimes bring up consoles like colecovision? look up angry nintendo nerd's top 10 sucky console video, it's amazing how many consoles came out in the states in the 70s-80s. while i was playing arcades in pakistan back then, we didn't get any of that, except atari.

If you are a older gamer you remember the launch of the xbox 360. It launched almost at a random time and was the first next gen console out. At the time the ps2 was in it's prime and the original xbox "halo box" was doing decent. It's widely thought that microsoft rushed the launch of the console so they could get the lead in sales, it seems to of been a solid plan as the ps3 took awhile to catch up from the year and a half head start. The problem the xbox faced right from launch till nearly the end of it's life was faulty hardware. launch consoles were burning up and melting and most had to be recalled. Soon after that we started seeing the red ring of death that plagued most of the consoles. Several revisions to the console were made to aid the overheating problems, stronger fans, larger cooling, motherboard changes, and finally a total redesign (360 slim) that seamed to finally fix the issue.

With all of that said, does it seem like sony released the ps4 early to prompt ms to do the same in hopes they would have yet another generation of hardware woes? The already failing xbox1's seem to possibly be a tell tale sign.

thoughts?

They do have a name for gamers who very well remember the Xbox 360 launch, though. They call them "high school seniors."

Anyway, what's the XOne failure rate thing? I haven't been paying attention since around launch but as far as I knew and still I can discover after a little quick searching, early failure rates for both consoles remain under 3% of units sold. Those are happy dance defect rate numbers. Those are, "Hey we can send you a brand new replacement console right now, be there tomorrow or the next day," numbers. Those are numbers Apple would be pretty happy with for a new product.

So, seriously, you can push an early release and you maybe elicit feature deficits, firmware and OS bugs and shortcomings. You can hope your pushing results in a lack of credible launch titles and those available are rushed-up, could have used more time in development. The hardware architecture has been fixed for a long time as have the assembly plans. All you have to do is start the process. It's not like Microsoft didn't know for a long time PS4 would launch sometime in November. Not like they found out on Halloween. It's pretty hard to break Blu-ray drives by pushing Microsoft to starting manufacturing Xbox One's ahead of their ideal plan. They're sealed components from an optical drive vendor. Assembly is just installing them. I mean, unless you're so rushed you forget to take "smack Blu-ray drive with hammer four times" out of the assembly line training manual.

Xbox 360 launch failure rates were ridiculously, astoundingly high. They were nowhere near "most." Outside estimates put them at 35% -- which is aggregate, all issues, and is probably still a few points high, but I'll accept 35%. 35% is egregious. It's still not "most." And there was no recall. Where do people get the idea there was a recall? There was no reason to recall 360s. Microsoft extended the manufacturer's warranty for RROD issues to three years. Later they added another discrete but apparently somehow related graphics card fail and error code to that three year warranty. No recall. Extension of warranty.

Anyway, currently there aren't any hardware fail rates on either console you wouldn't expect. In fact, there are lower fail rates than you'd expect. The Xbox 360 likely did launch too early based upon Microsoft's time to develop a new console. If they'd waited maybe they would have done more of the hardware themselves. But it wasn't a rush to manufacture that caused the problem. It was a console design issue. Astro knew how to make some gaming-specific electronics but they didn't know how to make a whole computer, which was what an Xbox 360 was. As was PS3, a computer, and launch PS3 still had a bit high failure rates for a piece of Sony hardware, but PS3 had a unique architecture they had to deal with. Otherwise Sony had lower, acceptable fail rates with PS3 because Sony has long known how to make whole computers.

Yes, they launched earlier than probably should have. The original Xbox was NOT doing decent, from a business perspective.

Sony didn't release early. Sony released when they wanted to. Microsoft released early with the One.

Well if we want to be blunt, yeah.

I'll say this. It would seem Sony caught MS a bit off guard, however considering the 180 MS was later forced to do one must wonder if they wouldn't have had their software/OS farther along than Sony. That itself is tough to say because of how quiet Sony was about their progress. They stood back seemingly, and as MS took most of the backlash with their DRM scheme some may wonder how much of such both of them were about to implement. Sony more than likely made some changes as well (although quietly)

If that being the case than the level of disarray we are reporting and experiencing could have been a lot less if they kept their original software in place (or better yet, weren't so keen on pushing the DD era for consoles as hard in the first place)

I see where you are coming from because the Xbone has received many complaints, left and right. Once one has been discovered suddenly another pops up. Last week I was afraid it would never end. Everyday there was something new. I really wouldn't put this on Sony, mainly because they were ready to launch the PS4 at the time in question. MS on the other hand seemed scared and seemed to rush an unfinished product. I don't know these are only my thoughts, but from the series of events since the Xbone reveal, this seems to be the case.

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